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Why SaaS business needs a mobile app?

The increasing demand of smart devices has changed the picture of Software as a service (SaaS) applications. Following the current trend, many SaaS companies are focusing on mobile app development.

Mobile SaaS is taking off among small, medium and large businesses, regardless of the industry. The need of flexibility and ease of deployment is the main reason behind adoption of SaaS mobile app. So, it is an obvious fact that every SaaS business needs a mobile app for showcasing their brand and creating a better experience for users. However, there are few questions that need to be answered, such as –

What is the scope of SaaS based mobile apps?

What is the ROI of SaaS business with a mobile app?

Why there is an increasing demand of SaaS mobile app?

According to mobile app development experts – technology trends are moving fast and the app development trend will surely change the aspect of technological trigonometry in coming years. Mobile apps have become an integral part of our life, as they track our moments, daily activities and provide a wide range of information at a single tap.

The popularity of mobile apps is increasing as it reduces customer acquisition cost and simplifies deployment. Developers can support customers with a single version product using SaaS. This approach allows companies to scale fast without adding IT staff or replacing the infrastructure. The subscription based SaaS pricing model can keep the IT budget consistent or even lower than native software.

How SaaS Mobile apps changed the game?

A web application in cloud computing model is known as Software as a Service (SaaS). It has a few special characteristics such as –

Data is stored in multiple servers

Can scale up/down the number of users

Subscription based pricing model etc.

The market for SaaS apps has become explosive in the recent years, as they tend to maximize employee productivity and business growth. Many small and medium organizations are leveraging new SaaS mobile apps as per their performance needs. SaaS mobile app development companies around the world help businesses in this convergence to know where to focus next and where things are going. Mobile SaaS has burst into the scene and it is expected to reach $20 million by the end of 2017, due to the continued sales of smartphones. Today, cloud apps are driving 81% of mobile traffic and they are expected to drive 93% of mobile traffic by the year 2019.

Many developed countries not only have mobile enabled workers, but their population expects SaaS applications to be delivered over the mobile. The current growth of SaaS mobile apps is much stronger than productivity apps such as – DropBox, Slack etc —- and it is expected to see much growth in coming years. The performance of SaaS mobile app companies seems to be nearly unstoppable, as more than 80% of employees are non-desk workers and 50% of workers have smart devices.

Obstacles to overcome to SaaS success

There are some key challenges that SaaS mobile app developers must address to keep app usage and retention high. SaaS mobile apps face many challenges to success, such as – user experience, app performance, development efficiency etc. Overcoming these challenges becomes much easier when the app development and product management teams collaborate.

User experience is one of the biggest challenges for SaaS mobile app developers. The end users become advocates for the app and help convince enterprises to adopt it, resulting in success of their marketing strategy. If the user experience is sub-optimal, the workers may switch to other SaaS mobile apps without advocating for it. Vendors who lack mobile app development efficiency will fall behind the competitors. We all know that agile development is common these days, enabling SaaS development teams to update their apps with new features and functions. As a result of this, the app development market has recognized the need to optimize user experience.

The next biggest challenge in SaaS mobile app development is in-app performance. The product managers and developers can solve UI and development efficiency challenges. However, outside help is needed to solve the in-app performance problems. Solving these problems is crucial, as the in-app performance will make or break the SaaS mobile app success. The app performance has dramatic impact on user retention, as the retained users tend to recommend it to others or upgrade to premium version of apps. In this way, robust apps not only retain users, but will boost the revenue of SaaS mobile apps.

In order to address the performance of mobile app, SaaS mobile app providers need to focus on the mobile-first world where most of the enterprises perform their in-field tasks. The more features and functionality of mobile apps, the higher is the risk of slow app performance.

SaaS apps vs stand-alone apps

SaaS is not only used for laptops and desktops, but for various mobile devices also. The SaaS apps add value to service and can be used as a dashboard to provide reports to stakeholders. SaaS apps are different from stand-alone apps in terms of upfront cost, ease of access, no manual update, true collaboration, etc.

a.) Mobile SaaS apps do not need desktop downloads and can be accessible from anywhere using secured login. On the contrary, standalone apps can be downloaded directly from app store.

b.) The downloading cost of mobile SaaS apps depends on users, storage and package calculated on a monthly basis. While the cost of stand-alone apps is very nominal and a low one-time fee is applicable.

c.) SaaS mobile apps allow team members to communicate in real time, while stand-alone apps do not allow back and forth communication.

d.) All the updates and data are saved in cloud n SaaS mobile apps, whereas all the information is saved locally on your mobile device in stand-alone mobile apps.

Despite of the exponential costs, businesses are required to build and maintain their IT infrastructure. SaaS gives companies an alternative to plug in and subscribe the services built on a shared infrastructure. Because of the many benefits it offers to businesses of all sizes and types, SaaS model has flourished in recent years. Here is what’s driving the SaaS businesses to take advantage of mobile apps.

1.High adoption is one of the reasons behind increasing demand of SaaS mobile apps. These apps are available from anywhere and tend to have high adoption rate, as more and more people are familiar with using the internet.

2. SaaS mobile apps are subscription based and has no license fee. Businesses can lower the IT cost for software and hardware, and manage it all by having SaaS mobile apps.

3. Mobile apps for SaaS businesses manage and provide all the updates instantly. There is no need for companies to add additional hardware, software or increase the bandwidth as the user base grows.

As the number of mobile devices increases rapidly, the entire world is shifting towards mobile apps. Provide the users with a mobile app that give them access to your services at any time and from anywhere. Give your customers a better app that meets the standards of their devices with great design and performance. However, make sure to stick to native app development to provide better security and faster performance.

Rahul has been associated with the apps industry for more than 7 years now. He has seen the apps economy grow from its nascent days to a full fledged industry with its complete ecosystem as of today. His interest lies in pursuing and getting to know the best app development technologies, processes and platforms. He is truly an app enthusiast. In his free time he loves playing console games and reading history.

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Promatics is an ISO 9001:2008 certified offshore web and mobile application development company with a strong team of 100+ highly skilled IT experts delighting SMEs across USA, Europe and APAC. Our services and solutions help clients to achieve tangible business value and remain competitive in today’s evolving marketplaces.